Train to Busan Remake Gets Major Release Date Change

Last Train to New York, the forthcoming remake of the 2016 international hit Train to Busan, has been removed from Warner Bros. Pictures’ release schedule, casting doubt on when or if the movie will get a theatrical release. The movie, which centers on a zombie attack on board an express train, is set to be directed by Indonesian director Timo Tjahjanto, the filmmaker behind V/H/S/94, The Night Comes for Us, and May the Devil Take You. There’s no word yet on why the film was removed from the schedule. It comes amid a number of scheduling changes from Warner Bros., including a delay to the planned remake of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot.

Gary Dauberman, who wrote Last Train to New York, is directing Salem’s Lot. Last Train to New York will also have Dauberman and Aquaman director James Wan on board as producers. Not long ago, Wan’s Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom was one of a number of WB/DC films to be delayed, some significantly. Given the recent acquisition of Warner Bros. by Discovery, it’s likely there is a radical shift in the studio’s priorities and film slate coming soon.

Filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho, who followed up Train to Busan with an animated prequel, a second movie, and has plans for a third movie, said last year that he hopes the remake of his movie takes the concept and does something new, rather than just directly remaking his film with American actors.

“We use the expression or word ‘remake,’ but I do not think that a remake is something that you just apply more sophisticated technology to based on an original piece of work,” the filmmaker revealed to TIME. “I believe a remake should be a completely new creation. And as the creator of the original work, I do not think that there need to be similarities between the remake and the original Train to Busan. I actually hope that it will have its very own unique qualities and a new vision. In fact, as the creator, if it was almost exactly interpreted compared to the original work, wouldn’t it be better to just watch the original Train to Busan?”  

Tjahjanto has previously opened up about the backlash that news of an American remake to Train to Busan has inspired over the past year, writing in a tongue-in-cheek manner on Twitter:

“In James (Wan) own words: ‘Timo,we need to rise above & beyond everyone’s expectations, just like other great remakes have done such as The Ring or Dawn of the Dead remake.’ Who am I to let my boss down? Needed to add that James has been my hero since my college days. As a South East Asian kid from a conventional middle class family who doesn’t exactly encourage artistic endeavors ( i.e blowing up heads, smearing fake blood) his rise from SAW inspired a lot of us SEA genre doofuses.”